A chronology for convicted sex offender and former junior hockey coach Graham James, who was granted full parole Thursday: 1983-84: Named head scout of the Western Hockey League's Winnipeg Warriors and recruits Theoren Fleury and Sheldon Kennedy. 1984: Hired as head coach of the WHL's Moose Jaw Warriors. 1986: Hired as head coach and GM of WHL's Swift Current Broncos; acquires Kennedy in a trade. Nov. 22, 1996: Calgary police charge James with two counts of sexual assault involving more than 300 encounters with two of his former players over a span of 10 years. Jan. 2, 1997: Pleads guilty to sexual assault and is sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison. Canadian Hockey Association bans him for life from coaching. Feb. 27, 1998: Pleads guilty to indecent assault on a 14-year-old boy in 1971. Receives a six-month concurrent sentence. July 1, 2000: Sentence expires; disappears from the public eye. 2001-03: Found coaching boys teams in Spain, including the national team. 2003: A civil lawsuit, filed in 1999 by an anonymous victim, is settled out of court. James tells a Canadian reporter who finds him in Spain: "I'm sorry for all of this." 2007: Quietly applies for and receives a pardon from the National Parole Board, prompting national outrage when it comes to light several years later. October 2009: Fleury releases his autobiography "Playing with Fire," in which he alleges James sexually molested him from the age of 14. January 2010: Fleury files a complaint with the Winnipeg Police Service, prompting an investigation into his allegations. May 2010: Reporters track down James in Guadalajara, Mexico. October 2010: Winnipeg police issue a Canada-wide warrant for James. He faces nine new sex charges involving three boys and spanning 1979 to 1994. James is apprehended by police at the Toronto airport and brought back to Winnipeg. December 2010: Is granted bail and moves to Montreal. Dec. 7, 2011: Pleads guilty to sexual offences involving Fleury and one unnamed victim. March 2012: Is sentenced to two years. Feb. 15, 2013: Manitoba Court of Appeal increases sentence to five years. May 25, 2015: Charged with sexual assault against a player he coached with the Swift Current Broncos in the early 1990s. June 19, 2015: James pleads guilty to most recent charges. January 2016: Granted day parole in Quebec. Sept. 15, 2016: Granted full parole.
